"Para Pelari Baru Tiba di Finish, Kini Mereka tidak Punya Kaki"

"These Runners Just Finished, Now They don`t Have Legs"

Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Novita Cahyadi


"Para Pelari Baru Tiba di Finish, Kini Mereka tidak Punya Kaki"
Korban bom di Boston (Foto2: Mail Online)

SAKSI mata menggambarkan bagaimana ledakan bom kembar membalik kondisi Marathon Boston menjadi zona perang, mengotori tujuan akhir perlombaan dengan kaki tanpa tubuh, pelari terluka yang kehilangan kaki mereka, dan sepatu tunggal dengan sepotong daging di dalamnya.

Ahli bedah berbicara tentang ruang operasi yang tampak seperti rumah sakit medan perang ketika 140 korban luka diantar ke rumah sakit itu - banyak korban yang terluka seperti terlibat dalam pertempuran.

Laporan menunjukkan bahwa kecil, bahan peledak rakitan yang dikemas dengan bantalan bola yang merobek kaki, pergelangan kaki, betis dan seluruh kaki dan mereka meledak di luar garis finish yang ramai.

Sejauh ini sepuluh korban dikhawatirkan telah kehilangan anggota badan dalam teror ledakan terburuk di AS sejak 9/11 - dua bersaudara kehilangan kaki masing-masing dalam ledakan itu, seperti dilansir Mail Online.

"Para pelari baru saja sampai finish dan mereka kini tidak lagi memiliki kaki," kata Roupen Bastajian, 35, polisi Rhode Island dan mantan marinir, kepada New York Times. "Jadi banyak dari mereka. Ada begitu banyak orang tanpa kaki. Darah tertumpah. Ada darah di mana-mana. Anda ketemu tulang, bercak kulit. Ini menjijikkan. "

Bastajian, yang juga mengikuti maraton, mengatakan jika ia tidak start di nomor 2011 dalam lomba, dia juga mungkin menjadi salah satu korban.

Dokter merawat korban di rumah sakit di seluruh kota mengatakan banyak dari luka itu disebabkan oleh ´puing-puing logam kecil´, namun tidak bisa mengkonfirmasi itu bantalan bola, yang akan menunjuk ke jenis perangkat yang digunakan.

Peter Fagenholz, seorang ahli bedah trauma di Massachusetts General Hospital, mengatakan 29 pasien dirawat di sana, delapan di antaranya dalam kondisi kritis.

Dia mengatakan banyak luka-luka yang terjadi dari tungkai bawah dan beberapa tindakan ´amputasi telah dilakukan.

"Ini sangat menyedihkan, itu tindakan disengaja. Saya tidak bisa mengatakan saya pernah melihat banyak pasien datang dengan cepat dengan cedera seperti ini," katanya kepada Daily Telegraph setelah melakukan enam operasi.

"Banyak puing-puing logam kecil di tubuh korban. Kita tidak bisa mengatakan jika ditempatkan di sana sengaja atau hanya bagian dari ledakan itu. "

Dr Michael Epstein, yang bekerja di departemen darurat di Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, mengatakan sedikitnya 21 korban berada dalam perawatan mereka.

Luka-luka berkisar dari kerusakan gendang telinga bagi mereka dengan cedera yang mengancam nyawa, dengan beberapa penderitaan ´kerusakan´, katanya lagi.

Brigham dan Women merawat 31 pasien, banyak di antaranya mengalami luka ortopedi.

Seorang juru bicara mengatakan kepada Daily Telegraph korban diuji untuk dampak radiasi tapi tidak ditemukan terjadi kontaminasi.

Bahkan petugas pemadam kebakaran berpengalaman mengaku muak dengan insiden berdarah yang terjadi di tengah musim semi yang indah di Boston.

"Dalam 28 tahun terakhir, ini adalah peristiwa terburuk yang pernah saya lihat," kata Ron Harrington, Kepala Distrik Boston Fire Department kepada NBC News.

´Badan dan bagian tubuh. Darah dimana-mana. Seorang anak kecil tergeletak di jalan. Seorang wanita usia dua puluhan. Keduanya tewas. Itu adalah kekacauan. Saya melihat dua orang dengan lengan menggantung, dan satu tanpa kaki.

´Sebuah sepatu dengan daging masih di dalamnya. "

Setidaknya 17 orang berada dalam kondisi kritis dan beberapa tidak diharapkan untuk bertahan hidup dalam semalam.

Tiga orang tewas, termasuk Martin Richard berusia delapan tahun, yang sedang menunggu ayahnya di dekat garis finish.

Beberapa berita melaporkan bahwa ball bearing digunakan sebagai bom. Bola baja kecil yang populer di kalangan pembuat bom di seluruh dunia, karena tiap pecahannya menjadi menjadi proyektil mematikan ketika terpental oleh kekuatan ledakan bom.

Beberapa dokter, mengatakan mereka menemukan puing-puing jalanan di luka pasien mereka, tapi bukan bukan bantalan bola.

´Batu, potongan logam, kaleng soda, apa pun yang benar-benar dekat dengan ledakan seperti itu bisa terpecah-pecah,´ Dr Ron Walls, ketua pengobatan darurat di Brigham dan Rumah Sakit Wanita, mengatakan kepada ABC News .

"Segala sesuatu yang kita lihat adalah materi biasa yang bisa saja didorong oleh perangkat."

Pemilik hotel, Marc Hagopian mengatakan kepada MailOnline bagaimana ia menyaksikan pembantaian yang tak terbayangkan hanya berjarak 35 meter dari ledakan bom.

"Itu adalah kekacauan - darah dan anggota tubuh di mana-mana. Ada seorang pria yang kehilangan kaki, korban lain kehilangan keduanya," katanya.

"Ada tujuh, delapan, sembilan orang tergeletak di tanah. Mereka tampaknya tewas."

´Pelari maraton merobek celana mereka untuk digunakan sebagai torniket demi membantu yang terluka."

Mark mengaku berada di Charlesmark Hotel, di Boyston Street, ketika bom pertama meledak. Saat ia bergegas keluar, bom kedua meledak.

"Ada darah di mana-mana, bersama dengan kaki terputus. Semua tampak mengerikan, "katanya.

Bom kedua datang sekitar 10 detik setelah yang pertama. Kaki para korban pun putus akibat kekuatan ledakan."
Mark, 50, merekam kejadian, menunjukkan seorang pria terbaring yang rupanya tak sadarkan diri di trotoar berlumuran darah.

Terdengar teriakan seorang pria: "Apa yang f *** terjadi, bom"

Seorang pria lain, mengenakan kaos sepak bola David Beckham, terlihat berlarian.

Daerah di sekitar hotel dievakuasi. Mark dan tamunya berkumpul di sebuah restoran dua blok dari situ menunggu instruksi polisi.

Ibu Hagopian, Marcia Scott-Harrison, yang dievakuasi dari sekitar Commonwealth Avenue, mengatakan: "Mark sangat terguncang tapi setidaknya ia tidak terluka.

´Hotel dia berada dekat garis finish. Seorang pria duduk di luar hotel dengan kaki terputus. Hal ini mengerikan.

"Saya mendengar ledakan kedua, lalu selusin polisi berlarian datang dari Commonwealth Avenue. Mereka berteriak-teriak agar orang-orang segera menjauh dari jalan."

´Ada gadis-gadis muda menangis, saya menarik tiga orang gedung apartemenku. Itu adalah kekacauan. Tidak ada yang tahu apa yang terjadi. "

Di tengah horor, meskipun begitu Bostonians menunjukkan kegigihannya.

Para pelari maraton berbalik arah zona bencana setelah berlari sejauh 26 mil.

´Kaki seseorang terbang melewati kepala saya," kata John Ross, seorang penonton kepada Boston Herald. "Saya lepaskan ikat pinggang untuk membantu menghentikan darah."

Video menunjukkan pelari menanggalkan baju mereka untuk dipakai menjadi perban bagi korban yang terluka.

WITNESSES have described how twin bomb blasts turned the 26th mile of the Boston Marathon into a war zone, littering the final stretch of the race with disembodied limbs, wounded runners who lost their legs, and a lone shoe with flesh still in it.

Surgeons spoke about operating theaters that looked like battlefield hospitals as 140 injured victims poured into the city´s hospital´s - many with wounds only seen in combat.

Reports suggest that the small, homemade explosives were packed with ball bearings that tore off feet, ankles, calves and entire legs and they exploded just outside the crowded finish line.

So far ten of the victims are feared to have lost limbs in the worst terror blast in the worst terror atrocity on US soil since 9/11 - two brothers lost a leg each in the blast.

´These runners just finished and they don’t have legs now,´ 35-year-old Roupen Bastajian, a Rhode Island state trooper and former Marine, told the New York Times. ´So many of them. There are so many people without legs. It’s all blood. There’s blood everywhere. You got bones, fragments. It’s disgusting.´

Mr Bastajian, who was also running in the marathon, said if he had not beaten his 2011 pace in the race, he, too, might have been one of the victims.

Doctors treating victims at hospitals across the city said many of the injuries had been caused by ´small metal debris´, but could not confirm if they were ball bearings, which would point towards the type of device used. 

Peter Fagenholz, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, said 29 patients were being treated there, eight of whom were in a critical condition.

He said many of the injuries were to the lower limbs and that ´several´ amputations had been carried out.

´It´s just depressing that it´s intentional. I can´t say I´ve ever seen this volume of patients come this quickly with this type of injury,´ he told the Daily Telegraph after having already carried out six operations.

´It´s a lot of small metal debris. We can´t say if they were placed there intentionally or were just part of the blast.´

Dr Michael Epstein, who works in the emergency department at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said at least 21 victims were in their care.

The injuries ranged from eardrum damage to those with life-threatening injuries, with some suffering ´extensive damage´, he added.

Brigham and Women´s treated 31 patients, many of whom had orthopaedic wounds.

A spokesman told the Daily Telegraph the victims were tested for background radiation but no contamination was found.  

Even seasoned firefighters were sickened by what unfolded on a beautiful spring day in Boston.

´In 28 years, this is definitely the worst I´ve seen,´ Boston Fire Department District Chief Ron Harrington told NBC News.

´Bodies and body parts. Blood all over. A little boy lying in the street. A young woman in her twenties. Both dead. It was mayhem. I saw two people with arms hanging loose, and one without a leg.

´A shoe with flesh still in it.´

At least 17 people are in critical condition and some are not expected to survive the night.

Three people have died, including eight-year-old Martin Richard, who was waiting for his father near the finish line.

Several news outlets have reported that ball bearings were used in the bombs. The small steel balls are popular among bomb-makers the world over because each one becomes a deadly projectile when launched by the explosive force of a bomb.

Some doctors, though, said they found street debris in the wounds of their patients, not ball bearings.

´Rocks, bits of metal, soda cans, anything that is really close to a blast like that can be fragmented,´ Dr. Ron Walls, chair of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women´s Hospital, told ABC News.

´Everything we saw was ordinary material that could have been propelled by the device.´

Hotel owner Marc Hagopian told MailOnline how he witness unimaginable carnage 35 yards from the bomb explosion.

´It was chaos - blood and limbs everywhere. There was a man who had lost a leg, another had lost both,´ he said.

´There were seven, eight, nine people lying on the ground. They appeared to be dead.

´Marathon runners were tearing off their shorts to use as tourniquets to help the injured.´

Mark was inside the Charlesmark Hotel, on Boyston Street, when the first bomb went off. As he rushed outside, the second exploded.

´There was blood everywhere, along with severed limbs. It was just awful,´ he said.

The second bomb came about 10 seconds after the first. People were knocked off their feet by the force of it.´

Mark, 50, videotaped the aftermath, showing a man lying apparently unconscious on the pavement covered in blood.

Another man tears off his red t-shirt to use as a tourniquet as police officers rush to help.

A voice can be heard asking: “What the f*** happened, a bomb?”

Another man, wearing a David Beckham soccer shirt, is seen running around.

The area around the hotel was evacuated. Mark and his guests gathered in a restaurant two blocks away waiting for police instructions.

Hagopian’s mother Marcia Scott-Harrison, who was evacuated from nearby Commonwealth Avenue, said: ´Mark is in total shock but at least he wasn’t hit.

´His hotel is just yards from the finish line. A man sitting outside the hotel had his leg blown off. It is awful.

´I heard both explosions, then a dozen cops came running up Commonwealth Avenue. They were shouting for everyone to get off the street.   

´There were young girls crying, I pulled three into my apartment building. It was chaos. No one knew what was happening.´

Amid the horror, though Bostonians showed the mettle.  

Runners turned around after pounding 26 miles and raced into the disaster zone.

´Somebody´s leg flew by my head,´ spectator John Ross told the Boston Herald. ´I gave my belt to stop the blood.´

Videos show runners stripping off their shirts and tying them around the legs of wounded spectators for tourniquets.